I’m going to skip a few chapters and show you the last one. This is where I make the case for Christian community. Feedback on content is always appreciated.

Now that you’ve seen a number of the chapters, I want to give those of you who haven’t commented yet one last chance to chime in about whether or not this is a resource you could see yourself using at your church or with your small group, etc. These comments will be helpful as I explore the best option for publication. Thanks for all your help.

Chapter One: Let Me Tell You a Story
Chapter Two: The Story from Above
Chapter Three: The Story from Below
Chapter Four: Jesus–The Center of the Story
Chapter Five: Conversion: Becoming a Part of the Story
Chapter Six: Baptism: The Portal Into the Story

Partnership: Participating in the Story with Others

It’s common to hear someone say, “I’m a Christian but I don’t go to church.” Or “I follow Jesus but I want no part of organized religion.” I understand where they’re coming from. It’s easier to love Jesus than it is to love his followers. Jesus is worth taking seriously, but the church sometimes looks ridiculous with its embarrassing hypocrisy and constant bickering about religious minutia that appear absurd to outsiders.

The last thing I want to do in writing these words is encourage you to become more “religious” or to invest your time, energy, and money in the kind of organized religion that keeps making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Nor is it my intention to minimize the pain you may be feeling because of the way you’ve been treated by people who call themselves Christians. No one hated religious abuse more than Jesus. His confrontation of it was one of the reasons he was nailed to the cross.

Nevertheless, I want to make a case for why if we are serious about living out the mission of Jesus it is essential that we band together with other Christ-followers. It’s impossible to live out the gospel story as an isolated Christian. While I’ve tried to avoid that kind of overstatement in the previous pages, I’m willing to play such a card here at the end.

It is essential that we live in community with others who are training to be more like Jesus. We need to be prayed for, encouraged, served, challenged, and forgiven and we need to be doing the same for others. There are some problems in the world that are too big for one person or one family to tackle. Pooling our resources, our talents, our ideas, and our energy allows us to get more done that when we try to work alone.

From the very beginning, followers of Jesus have banded together for the sake of the mission. One of the first things Jesus did in his ministry was start building a community of followers who would learn from him and carry on his work. Jesus called these individuals to be his disciples, but as soon as they accepted the invitation, they were integrated into a larger group of people who were already following him. Part of their training was to learn how to live and work together in spite of their different personalities, backgrounds, and political agendas. After his resurrection, they continued to work together to spread the good news about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Everywhere they went, they’d tell the story of Jesus and invite their listeners to become a part of it. Those who accepted the invitation were gathered into a community. These communities of Christ-followers repeatedly got together to worship, pray, study, celebrate communion, and encourage one another. Another name for this community of Christ-followers is “church.”

I bet when you hear the word “church” the first thing you think of is a distinctive looking building. That’s too bad; because this image obscures an idea more beautiful and more distinct than anything an architect can put on a blueprint.

Imagine a group of hurting, broken people struggling to find their way in the world, who are given hope by someone who shows them that a different way of life is possible. Together they’re trying to make sense of the messiness of their lives and the world around them, while also trying to share what they’ve learned with other broken people who are searching for something more.

They do their best and they do their worst. They fail and they forgive. They laugh with joy and they cry out in pain. They seek the beauty of God in the world and they see his face in each other. That’s church. Or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be when Jesus’ followers are living out the story.

I hope that as you explore the gospel story and learn to live in it, you’ll find a group of people who will commit to living it out with you as the hands and feet of Jesus. Because the truth is you need the church, and the church needs you.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body made up of many parts. Each part of the body is different, yet they are all important. Each body part has a function that benefits the body as a whole. The body isn’t able to function properly unless all the parts are doing their job.

To be a part of the Body of Christ is to play an essential role in the life of the church. Every follower of Christ has something important to contribute to the church’s mission. The church can’t be all that God intends for it to be until every Christian contributes their strengths, gifts, and resources to the effort.

Once upon a time there was a man who decided to stop going to church. He said he wasn’t getting anything out of it anymore. Once he stopped going, he realized he didn’t miss his old church that much. This didn’t hurt his old church’s feelings. The people of his old church never even noticed that he was gone. He didn’t miss them and they didn’t miss him. Neither found each other to be missable.

I don’t want to be part of a church that isn’t missable and I don’t want to live a life that isn’t missable by others.

What about you?

Have you ever considered that God has blessed you with certain abilities and given you specific resources and allowed you to have certain experiences so that you can partner with other followers of Jesus for the purpose of making a noticeable difference in the world?

If not, then perhaps it’s time to think and pray through everything we’ve talked about in the preceding pages and ask yourself if it’s time to become a part of the God’s story. Or if you already consider yourself to be a part of the story, then maybe it’s time to evaluate your level of investment in it. Maybe it’s time to go deeper. Maybe it’s time to reach further. Maybe it’s time to walk faster. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to do it all on your own and start partnering with others who are also a part of the story.

I leave you with this blessing:

May you always be aware of the presence of God in your story, and with each passing day, may you grow in the ability to see how your life is a part of God’s story. May God continue to use your story, in conjunction with the stories of those around you, to tell the best and truest story that has ever been told.